


MindScape

by Mageless



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: ...Just a little., F/M, Soooo...There's some slight trauma, it'll be fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21675556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mageless/pseuds/Mageless
Summary: Brainy falls into a coma and locks his mind away inside of itself. Nia goes inside to wake him up.
Relationships: Querl Dox/Nia Nal
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

Nia Nal had never realised just how loud the alarms inside of the DEO actually were. The screeches grated against her ears like the nails of a particularly vicious fifth grade english teacher -who would not be named- on chalkboard and it hurt. The sound and the lights and the bustle of the chaos around her gave dreamer the kind of sensory overload that drove Brainy into dark closets at party's, and of course this was all about Brainy. It was always about Brainy.

He looked so fragile. Normally seeing the coluan's true face had always given Nia a sense of warmth, of trust. He'd seemed so larger than life, or at least a large part of her life. Now his blue skin was practically white in most places: see through and ghostly and wrong. The undersides of his eyes, his temples and his neck. They were worse. Bruised black and midnight blue, like poisonous ink. Nia almost wished those bruises had come from a fight, because there was something almost secure about that. Those kind of bruises, they let you know you were still alive. Still kicking. Still fighting. Except Brain hadn't been in a fight, not a physical one anyway.

It was killing him, though. 

"THREE. TWO. ONE. LIFT!" Alex Danvers was leading the DEO medical team like it was a charging battalion, because of course she was. Before Nia could even blink the agents had Querl up on a medical bed, tubes and wired socketed in him like he was more machine than man. If he hadn't looked so exhausted, so pale, she might have believed it, in exactly the same way she _didn't_ want to believe the array of monitors and screen across the walls that were displaying Brainy's vital signs, because all of them were abnormal. At this rate, he was going to die. Brainy was going to die and she wasn't even going to et the chance to say goodbye. 

"Alex, what's going on?!" She shouted, desperately. It was a long distance between knowing that all reds equals bad, and what the information actually said. Alex shook her head and started shouting commands, and Nia felt her heart lodge in her throat. She had to know that he'd be okay, that he'd wake up. One moment she'd been arguing with Yvette over fridge space and the next moment he had flown in through the window, raining shattered glass that could probably have hurt her if she hadn't had maybe a second and a half warning from her powers to react. His imager had been broken or turned off or something, because the man was one hundred percent his self. Yvette had thrown the blue alien superhero that had crash landed in her living room a disdainful glare before finishing the last of the milk. Straight from the bottle. "You two are cleaning this up."

So Nia had called Kara immediately, and all of this had led them to where they were now: Nia Nal furiously biting her nails as the while medical task force failed to cure Brainy of whatever poison was snaking though his system, a system which was rapidly deteriorating. It wasn't just bruises, now. Dark, jet black veins pushed out from Brainy's skin, ugly and toxic. She'd seen that colour before, when she dreamed her mother's death. The thought of that memory, of letting her mother die caused a spark of pain to run through her. Why hadn't she dreamed this? The dream she'd ignored, and the dream she'd missed. Why did her powers have such a stupid, problematic blind spot when it cam to the people she loved?!?! 

J'onn was standing, leaning against the med bay doors, the face of Hank Henshaw pulled into a tight, somber frown. When the martian manhunter took a step forward, the people in the room stopped, like a spell had been cast over them. It was a silent aura, one that J'onn would never be able to remove. No matter how much he tried everybody in that room trusted him implicitly. Nobody questioned it when he stopped by Brainy's side, pressing his fingers against the coluan's temple, his eyes glowing a bright, sharp red. Not even when Brainy started to shudder and convulse, black and foul smelling blood running out of his nose, mouth, ears. Even his eyes. It took everything Nia had not to run to him and just cry, and even then only because of Alex's steady hand on her shoulder. Slowly, just a little bit of colour returned to Querl's face, and those horrid veins receded bit by bit. The moment she knew Nia wasn't going to flip out, Alex went over to check his vitals. They were improving. Slowly. 

"What did you do?" she finally asked, taking a moment to take a breathe as any of the non-essential staff left the room. J'onn gave a weak smile, joining her on another seat. "I did nothing, Alex." he noted, with the sort of false sagaciousness Nia had noticed he tended to carry now. "I just told Mr. Dox what he needed to do, and he did it. Coluan physiology is remarkably durable when augmented, especially against toxins. He should be able to filter out the poison in given time."

As if to specifically prove J'onn's point, black blood started to drip and pour out of Brainy's finger, the nurse linking the flow up to a blood bag that would contain the poisonous blood. Before Nia could go to Brainy, J'onn held her back. "He can't wake up until all the poison is gone from his bloodstream. He'll need all of his mind to suppress it. He can't afford any other sensory input, Nia. It'll take up too much space in his mind." Sensory input... was that all she was? Something that was stopping him from getting better? Kara placed a hand on her shoulder, saying something motivational about how it would all be okay, and of course it would. Everything J'onn had just said made it sound like Brainy was going to be fine. All he needed was some bed rest that's all, and Nia had never been one for blatant pessimism. So why was she feeling so dour?

The medical alarms were finally gone, but another soon took its place. This one seemed quieter to her, something about an alien attack, nothing too cataclysmic. Nobody needed Dreamer for this. Nia Nal climbed in the medical bed besides her friend's, deciding on some much needed sleep whilst Supergirl went to save the day, even if she was a little afraid of what she would see.


	2. Chapter 2

"Nia, you need to go home!" Alex shouted. The half Naltorian had refused to leave the DEO for days, and even if the building had showers and beds, and Kara could bring over a change of clothes, they couldn't change the fact that dreamer had refused to leave her friend's side, to the point that she looked worse than he did. Nia had bags under her eyes and a soulless look and she'd eaten nothing but take out for a week and it was beginning to show. She was exhausted.

"You said he'd wake up when the poison was out of his system." She accused, and the whole gang winced. When Nia was passionate about something, she was like a burning sun: difficult to withstand without some serious cover. "He's been clean for two days, so why hasn't he woken up?!" Kara gave her friend an empathic look, trying to give her a reassuring touch but missing as Nia flinched away.

"Nia I'm sorry but there's nothing you can do to help, okay? You're just going to have to wait for him to heal on his own. We all are." Nia was not the only one suffering. They were all worried about him. Still, that'd had been the wrong thing to say. The wounded girl stormed out of the room in rage, or at least a strong fear disguised as it. J'onn sighed, running his hands across his face as he slouched in his seat. "She's not wrong." He remarked. "He should have woken up by now." The poison, although alien and unidentifiable, was gone from brainy’s system. There was no longer any reason for him not to be awake and yet... He just wouldn't wake up.

"J'onn can you go inside his mind? See what's wrong?"

The green Martian hung his head. "I've tried. Ever since that first time there's been something blocking me out. I can't get in."

Supergirl paced the room, trying to brute force a solution out of her mind.

"You said brainy was asleep, right." She asked, trying to fit the pieces together.

"Not exactly. It's more like he's in a medically induced coma, or self induced in this case. It's allowing his body to heal but I think his brain is tr- oh!" Kara smiled. The first proper smile she'd had all week. "Exactly!" She grinned, and Alex paused in confusion for a moment before catching on as well. "I'll grab the interfaces." Suddenly, everything didn't seem quite so dark anymore. After all, they had been through this before. J'onn gave a quick cough. "We should grab Nia" he mentioned, and everyone agreed. It wasn't just about telling her they had a plan. If this was going to work, they would need dreamer, and they might also just need Nia Nal.

The Nia in question was currently sat in what she had unceremoniously claimed as 'her room' during the past week she had stayed at the DEO, which is to say it was the quietist room in the building with a coffee machine which judging by the fact that she could barely keep her eyes open was a poor replacement for sleep. Rubbing the tears from her eyes, she couldn't help but self-remark that they probably didn't help much either, and not just with the tired-ness. The pit in her stomach that formed when Brainy had conked out hadn't gone away and instead gotten bigger, and the longer he was asleep the more Nia was afraid he wouldn't wake up. Fear turned to anger which turned into hate, and suddenly she couldn't even look at team super without getting pissed off, and she knew they were worried for him too but she just couldn't help it. She needed to vent. Hell, she needed to punch something, but just the thought of getting into a fight reminded her of training with Brainy, which usually felt more like a dance than a fight with his physics and calculus and her... well, just trying to catch up to the beat. Fighting with Brainy was wonderful, and peaceful, and God she would do almost anything for him to wake up and tell her some crap about how "she wasn't ready" to learn something that she was just gonna go and secretly learn without telling him anyway. Nia's lip wobbled, and some more tears fell into her cup. For the past few days the only thing in her head was that day in the hospital, and her wondering what would have happened if Lex hadn-

"Heeeeeey Nia!" Kara beckoned, trying to pass of worry and guilt as casual and cheerful. It didn't work, especially with J'onn and Alex sort of just awkwardly standing behind her like they were somehow allergic to emotion, which for them might have actually been possible. "We think we might have a way to save Brainy." Jerking her head up to the almost constantly perky superhero Nia gave a hopeful attempt at a smile. "Really?" Everybody nodded, and Dreamer was so happy that she didn't even notice the awkwardness of everybody else present. "Really!" 

Really, she should have known it'd be something weird from the start. 


	3. Chapter 3

"So let me get this straight." Nia remarked, still not quite used to the insanity of team super. "You want me to go inside, INSIDE brainy's mind?" Kara nodded, fitting what looked to be a small sheet of some port of metal or polymer onto her forehead. "You just need to go in, find brainy and pull him out." She paused, rethinking her sentence. "Don't pull, pull him out. Just... Gently persuade him to leave. He might not be aware he's asleep." She advised. Nia nodded, if a little emptily, trying to sort her thoughts into some sort of recognisable order. "Any advice?" She asked. Alex smiled, leaning over her with exactly the terrible bedside manner that was expected from her, a sharp pinch attacking her right side. Ouch. "Night night, Dreamer. Try not to get lost." Down the rabbit hole. Everything went black and the next thing she knew, she was waking up on a floor. Waking up inside of a dream was always a surreal feeling, except this wasn't a dream, it was the mind-palace of Querl Dox, aka brainiac 5. Aka Barney if you delivered Pizza. God knows what she'd find in here. They'd all wondered, of course. It was hard not to wonder what Brainy’s mind looked like. Lena had hypothesised a sort of warehouse, a suppository of emotions and memories stored in those itty bitty boxes they'd both so loved to create. Kara had thought that he might have found himself somewhere safe, with the legion maybe. Somewhere familiar to him. Nia doubted that one. John had been worried Brainy would be trapped inside of his darkest memories. He didn't like to talk about it, but Nia knew he had many. Basically all of them projected their own problems, which was about as useful as it sounded. The interface felt uncomfortable on her head. Not physically, after all it was only a small thing, and she was inside the mind palace, anyway. Her physical body was lying next to Brainy’s on a DOD hospital bed. Still, using the interface to go inside Brainy’s mind just felt weird, like cooking for a world class chef. If the situation was reversed and she was the one in the coma, he would be so much better equipped. Deep breaths. Nia sat up from her position on the ground. The floor was cold, biting. Like metal, or stone maybe. She opened her eyes though and everything was a glaring, neon white. Vaguely, she could make out that she was in a hallway, although she was a little bleary eyed. For a moment Nia felt a spark of confusion, because it didn’t make sense for her mental projection to be affected by physical ailments. How could she be bleary eyed inside a mind-scape? The moment she thought this though, her vision cleared up a little, and Nia managed to get a picture of what was going on, in more ways than one. Belief. Imagination. It was a powerful force for her in the real world, let alone here. Brainy's coma world was a type of dream in itself, and she had power here. Nia floated to her feet, glancing around the space around her. It was carefully blank, with practically no end in sight. Logic dictated that she walk forward, down the only available route she had. Instead, she turned around and walked straight into the wall behind her. Into, and right through. "Knew it!" She applauded herself, giving herself a little victory pump. All of that clinical white-ness. It wasn’t brainy. Not really. Anybody who thought otherwise simply didn't know him well enough. Besides, they'd just finished watching the Harry Potter movies a few weeks back, and she'd remembered how many times she'd had to explain to him that no, the wall was not a hologram, it was magic. He'd thought it a pretty brilliant idea, although a little bit risky as he then spent the following hour explaining why there was a 12.9% chance of the wizards world being discovered by muggles through this gateway alone. After that, she'd just decided to ignore him and enjoy the movies. Anyway, she'd figured it might have been on his mind, and there was just something... Ominous about that hallway. She'd never thought she'd feel so afraid of something that was a part of Brainy’s mind.

Wherever she was now though, it wasn't much better. For one, it was raining. A lightening storm was unfolding around her as bullets of water pelted her face. She pulled down the hood on her jacket to cover her, shoving her hands in her coat pockets. From what Nia could see she was on a street, and it definitely wasn’t earth. In distance Nia could vaguely see swarms of what appeared to be flying cars, and there were two moons up in what she could see of the sky, past the high rises and clouds. There were a _lot_ of clouds. Everything seemed busy enough that she got the urge to joke about ‘future new york’, but from the looks of things she didn’t have to guess where she was, since only one planet both made sense to be in Brainy’s mind _and_ fit the bill. She was on Colu, his home planet, and from what little she did know about Brainy’s time here she really didn’t want to be and yet unfortunately, she had no way out. Not without giving up on her friend. Fortunately however everything was still fairly linear, so she decided to just slowly make her way forward. One step at a time Nia made her way through the storm, hoping to God she wouldn't get struck by lightening because she wasn't entirely sure whether she could die in this world or not. Where was she, anyway? It felt so real, real enough that for somebody with a mind like Brainy’s, it probably was. A memory, maybe. or hell maybe it was just a random simulation, or symbolism for something else. Despite all of her research into dreams, she still felt so uninformed, still felt like if only her sister had gotten the powers, things could have been so much better. Nia probably would have fallen further into her thoughts, rain had the habit of doing that to her, if not for one very specific sound. The sound of a child crying. Not a hero on this planet, or any other could ignore that sound. She followed it, even as she knew that this could be betraying brainy, betraying the trust he had placed in her, all because those quiet sniffles brought tears to her eyes. Children who cried quietly... It was a heartbreaking sound. No one that young should have to quiet their tears. Soon, Nia saw a figure in the rain. Blue skin, and the hair of a brilliant mad scientist. She understood that for coluans, this probably wasn't too unique of a look, and the child was too curled up to be truly identifiable, but she just knew, she knew that it was Brainy. Her Brainy. "Heeeey kid" she started, sitting down next to the little boy in the rain, holding an umbrella above the both of their heads. "Are you okay?" Up close she could tell he was seven, maybe eight. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes, and she saw him. Him. So so broken and hurt but still him. The boy looked at her, for a little while: those bright eyes of his so brilliant and smart. Then he looked away again, staring forward at the rain in silence.

"My name's Nia!" She offered, a little awkwardly. The boy nodded. 

"Querl Dox." He acknowledged, his voice cold and calm and clear, more metallic than man. He was doing this on purpose, she realised. To scare people away, to make them think he feels less than he really does. "Of clan brainiac." He spat, emphasising that last word like it was supposed to make her run away screaming.

"Brainiac, huh?" She asked, her face smiling, other hand on her chin as she fixed her eyes on the ‘street’. The child pulled that face he always pulled when Kara did something Improbable, and it hurt her. To Nia, the only brainiac of import was him, Brainy. She didn't know much, didn't care much about the others. Not as much as she cared about him, but she'd seen the weight Lena lived under, and that was only one, two generations of a dark family. What must it have been like for him? "Well then, Brainy. Do you mind if I call you Brainy? "She asked. The boy nodded, if hesitantly, like he wasn't 100% certain of what was actually going on. "You see, brainy. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Do you think you can help?" Little brainy nodded, his eyes dimming. "I am a twelfth level intellect." He spat, treating those words like a curse instead of his previous, or she supposed future pride. " I can do anything." His words were ambitious, but his voice was hollow and brittle as ice. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and the boy flinched. For the first time she noticed the dark, blue bruises that covered his skin. The blood soaked into his clothes. God, all she wanted to do was hug him and say she was so, so sorry. She wanted to cry. "Brainy... Querl." She muttered, unable to keep calling this child by her friend’s name when they felt so, so different to her. This wasn't brainy. This is what came before. "I need to find someone that looks a whole lot like you, okay? But like thiiiis tall." She gestured to way above her head, for dramatic affect. "But what do you say we get out of this storm, first. Yeah?" The boy nodded, pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his clothes. "Do you want to find another coluan?" He asked, some familiar curiosity creeping into his tone as Nia got up to follow him. "... Sort of," she evaded, still holding that umbrella over the boy’s head. "You're not coluan." He remarked, and she laughed. They were on a road, now. Or at least something similar. "No. I'm from a planet called Naltor." She smiled, her voice laced with the storytelling tone an adult uses to describe endless adventure to a child. "But I'm also from a planet called earth!" The boy blinked his eyes, looking amazed, at least for a moment. Nia remembered Brainy, the real Brainy saying once that information about other planets was restricted on Colu. The planet was practically closed off from the rest of the universe. "Are Naltor and Earth really far away?" He asked, and for God knows what reason she gave him a little boop on the nose. He flinched, at first, and she felt this wave of pure guilt, but afterwards he gave a small, sincere smile, and suddenly everything seemed just a little fighter in the world. That was until he looked at the house in front of him with dark eyes. "We're here."


	4. Chapter 4

'Here' was a relatively large (as far as she could tell for Colu, judging by the other houses they had passed by) house, whose doors opened when the little Brainy approached. "Oh god." She Squeaked. This was his house! Brainy’s house! Was she going to meet his parents?! Brainy never really mentioned them, not on purpose anyway, but she knew that they weren't good people. Whenever Nia heard stories of Brainy’s past it always felt like a weird dream, because she couldn’t imagine the sweet and slightly shy guy she knew being anything even close to a criminal. ”Brainy, are your parents home?" She asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. Querl shook his head, and she heaved a sigh of relief, deciding to watch as the boy less than half her hight tried to embarrassedly tidy up what he considered mess in his practically immaculate home. What Nia thought might be a coffee table was covered with half finished electronic that the boy hastily stepped in front of to hide, and there was a pad of equations next to them that gave her a headache just looking at. "What are these?" She asked, and the boy flooded in panic. "It's nothing! He shouted, scooping the bundles of wires and chips and other unidentifiable tech into his arms, carefully moving it into a cupboard. Nia raised a single, solitary brow, and the boy bit his lip, playing with his fingers. "Its a time bubble." He murmured. And suddenly Nia felt like maybe she might have underestimated this kid. "You made a time machine!" She shouted, and the boy receded into his seat. "No... It's just a modified force field that allows time travel to work." He grumbled, suddenly sending a sedentary kick into the wall, which she realised was covered in scuff marks from similar abuses. His chair span in angry, dizzy circles and it’s occupant went a little green. ”Except it doesn't work!" He shouted, frustrated and annoyed. Nia quickly moved over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder as she went down on one knee, so that they would be at eye level. "Science takes time, brainy." She smiled. "You'll get there." She didn't know why she was so focused on this, on little brainy. She didn't know why she was wasting time floundering in Querl's memories when she had a job to do. She just couldn't help herself. She couldn't see Brainy, any version of Brainy suffer. It hurt too much. "Querl, why did you bring me here?" She asked, and the boy pointed to what was admittedly a little out of place in what was famed to be the most technologically advanced planet in the universe: a door. A wooden door, to be precise, with a dark red wine stain on the bottom of it. Nia knew it was a wine stain because she remembered the party Yvette had thrown, and the idiot who had spilt the wine there. He’d spilt it after she had told him she was trans, and any and all attempts he’d had to get her number had gone out of the window. She knew because this was her door. For a moment she wondered why her door was on Colu, but then she remembered that she wasn’t on Colu at all, and that a more apt question might be ‘why was her door in Brainy’s mind?’, which was a much easier question to answer. “It’s new.” Mini brainy replied, answering her unasked question as usual. The boy didn’t seem surprised to find a weird door in the middle of what she figured might have been his living room. “I’m not allowed through it.” He muttered, glowering at the offending object. Reaching her hand towards the doorknob, Nia paused and turned around, falling to one knee again so that she and brainy were at eye hight.    
  


“I have to go...” she muttered, guiltily avoiding the tears in the young boys eyes. “but I promise you, Brainy. I’ll see you again, so stay strong, okay?” He nodding, wiping away the water in his eyes as he put on a strong front, biting his upper lip in defiance of his own emotions. “Keeps working on that time bubble, Brainy. I have a feeling it’s going to be amazing.” And then Nia was gone, stepping through the door to somewhere entirely different, somewhere that both was and wasn’t her home. 


	5. Chapter 5

Nia hadn't been entirely sure _what_ to expect when she walked through that door. The idea of Brainy's mind-scape containing her apartment wasn't that weird; he'd been there before, and she could gather from the snippets of conversation accidentally let loose that Querl had never felt at home with the legion, not like he did on team super. Not like he did with her. Still, he'd always just sort of imagined that Brainy would be somewhere else, a fond memory maybe. Not her craphole, and certainly not like that. 

Brainy was lounging, and she did mean lounging on the couch, his feet curled up under an assortment of ratted, wooly and faded blankets that Nia herself had almost forgotten existed, his body held up by a deceptively strong arm propped against the side of the sofa and reading what seemed to be a book shakespearian love poetry. A... new genre, to be sure. Nia was pretty certain that she didn't own a book on shakespearian love poetry, but she was also pretty sure that she didn't own an entire bookcase of love poetry, and stories, and a legitimate leaning tower of pizza to go along with it. Apparently, Brainy had made himself at home and normally, Nia would feel indignant at even someone as close as Brainy invading what was admittedly only a facsimile of her apartment, but there was something about the room that creeped her out, something she hadn't noticed yet. A chill ran up Nia's spine, and she found herself turning around just to check if the door she entered by was even there any more. Surprisingly, it was. 

"Shall I compare thee to a summers day..." Brainy murmured, and Nia found herself whipping back around again with a 'slight' blush, in spite of everything. The coluan phrased the familiar line more like it was an object of study than a question, and every time he finished a sentence he'd pull his 'thinking face' that normally only ever appeared when he was pretending to be a better multi-tasker than he actually was, and then he'd make notes in this little journal by his side, but just the fact that he was reading love poetry, in her apartment, with her in the _room_ was enough to make her brain momentarily blank out. Was he reading to her? Of course Nia knew something was going on with them, she had since the hospital, but seeing Brainy like this, especially since he hadn't noticed her yet. It felt like as invasion of privacy. 

"Brainy, what are you doing here?" She asked, startling him up from his rest as he sat ramrod straight. Nia had never actually surprised Brainy before, and even with the ominous chill still creeping down her back she let out just a hint of a giggle at his antics. Gruffly, Brainy brushed imaginary dust bunnies off of his shoulders, showing off the midnight blue suit that he was wearing. It was a perfect fit, which Nia supposed made sense, because frankly if Brainy hadn't have gone into the super hero business he would have made a great tailor and secondly, because she supposed that in the dream world people appeared exactly as they would like to. It was why Nia had approached little Brainy as herself, in a faded and yellow and friendly rain-coat. It was also why she was subconsciously wearing her dreamer outfit, her battle armour now. In any case, Brainy looked confused, his head tilted in surprise as he set the book down on the table with a smile. "It's Friday." He reminded her. "I always come over on Friday." Technically, this was true. Ever since Nia had begun to train Brainy had come over on Fridays to teach what he liked to call 'dream-craft theory', and what she liked to call absolute nonsense. Practically however it wasn't even Friday, not in the real world, and even in the dream realm the clock read eleven pm. Brainy never stayed that late. Apparently he noticed he confusion, because Querl gave a hit of a confused grin. "Nia, Friday is date night!" Nia balked. It was suddenly all too real that she was spying inside of her friend's mind, that she was seeing things that she shouldn't. Brainy walked up to the window and gave a sad frown. "I wanted to take you to laser tag." He declared. Slowly, his arms brushed aside the curtains, showing the sight that lay behind them. Blank, viscous fluid swirled outside like oil, giving the appearance of Nia's house being inside of a giant fish bowl, with no safety in sight. “But I’m not allowed to leave.” he sadly remarked, more like a kid who wasn’t allowed some ice cream than a man in mortal danger. Nia panicked, running forward to pull him away from the sight, throwing closed the curtains and trying not to notice how pale and _sickly_ Brainy looked up close, because that probably wasn’t good. As he let himself get dragged towards the centre of the room Brainy gave Nia a gentle, amused smile; letting her do as she liked. Nia didn’t like anything at all, not in that moment. She didn’t like the murky splashes of black that coated her walls, and she didn’t like how they seemed to be moving towards her. She didn’t like that they were so obvious to her now, but she hadn’t even noticed them before, and she absolutely, brutally abhorred the blank,almost inebriated look on Brainy’s face that told her he probably still couldn’t. Something was… drugging him. Messing with his mind quite directly. Something that very much did not appreciate her company. 

“Brainy, Brainy we need to leave.” She implored, grabbing onto Brainy’s shoulder and attempting to shake him out of his almost euphoric stupor, but at this point he was barely even looking at her, just smiling like it was heaven on earth. Something touched Nia’s ankle, and she shrieked because it burnt like acid, and she dropped to the ground, except she didn’t. She didn’t drop to the ground because she was being thrown out of the building, more precisely out of the _window,_ by whatever fiery being was tangled around her leg. If she had any breathe in her lungs, or presence of thought, she might have laughed at the familiarity of the situation, even if the roles were reversed. 

Dreamer screamed.


	6. Chapter 6

Brainy smiled, settling back down onto the couch as he rested his head in Nia’sarms, he beautiful girlfriend leaving a chaste kiss on the top of his head as she read the book in his hands. Vaguely in the back of his head, Querl had the feeling he was forgetting something important, but they had both been so busy recently. Between work at the DEO and at CatCo, the time they had together was limited. He wasn’t going to waste it. Smiling, Nia passed him a slice of pizza and fondly, he noticed that the flavour was his favourite. “Apples and olives.” He beamed, biting out a chunk and savouring the flavour. “You remembered.”

The real Nia screamed herself hoarse, throwing waves of dream energy at the darkness pressing in on her, watching as that… thing shoved toxic gunk down her friends throat, watching as he laughed and grinned, peaceful despite the blood trickling down his lips and chin. The fake Nia seemed to be stealing Brainy’s life-force, becoming stronger and stronger as he fell weaker and weaker. She didn’t know what Brainy saw, but from where she was floating in the darkness of his mind, the fake Nia looked like an abomination, her own face stretched over a roiling, bubbling mass of black goo that spilt out of it’s eyes, it’s mouth and nose… The sludge moved like it was sentient, wrapping its way around Querl’s arms, legs and neck, sinking into his skin and dying it back. Now they knew why Brainy wouldn’t wake up: They’d cured his body, but not his mind. For a moment Nia was frustrated that she couldn’t ask the team for help; she couldn’t operate the interface like Brainy could, like he was in two places at once, and she was terrified that if she left now, she’d never be able to get back. Without their help though, she didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do. Fighting the poison in his mind like this, fending off waves and waves of attacks felt like trying to hold up the sky, or like she was stuck at the bottom of the ocean. Her lungs burst with pain, and she realised that she couldn’t breathe. Materialising her whip with a grimace, dreamer sent it flailing at the darkness and watched as it recoiled for barely a second before doubling the intensity of it's attack. She didn't want to, she really didn't, but step by step Nia retreated, falling back towards the door as she watched Brainy sink off of the couch, falling to the ground as the poison stroked his hair and whispered... something into his ears. Briefly, she saw him smile, clinging limply onto the poison as his eyes fluttered open and shut, and then the poison snapped her head to the side, just a few degrees more than was natural as she bared blacked, misshapen canines at Nia in a horrible facsimile of a grin. The door slammed shut on her nose and she gasped, smarting at the all too real sensation. Black ooze spread under the door, and young Brainy's voice sounded out behind her with a gasp. "Nia?" He asked, his voice afraid. Picking him up without warning, Nia sprinted out of the door, trying to ignore the darkness in the corner of her vision. 

They ran for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes. The young Brainy had bitten his lip to the point of bleeding, but survival held priority over her guilt, and from his position in Nia's arms the young coluan could see the tendrils of darkness that were quickly corruption his world, enveloping houses and streets and winking out even the vaguest hint of light. If he'd had the energy he might of cried, but he didn't, so he wouldn't. Nia turned a corner, almost slipping on the wet roads when she saw a door, gleaming white to the point that it actually emitted light. There was no handle on the door, so she did her best to barge into it without hurting the boy in her arms and just hoped to god it wasn't locked, choosing to ignore the feel of worry and discomfort in her heart in priority of the fear. The bright white light of the door probably should of comforted her after the blackness of the poison. It didn't, but she took a leap of faith, and burst into a clean, white hallway. For the moment the poison didn't follow her, which was probably a good sign, but she could hear it banging just outside of the door and she got the feeling she wouldn't be safe for long. The hallway was long, and blank, and it reminded her of the part of Brainy's brain that she had seen when she first entered and wasn't exactly sure if this was a good thing. Then she saw what lined the walls of the hallway and she knew most definitely that wherever she was, it definitely wasn't good. There were tens of them, possibly hundreds, each neatly separated from the other and going on for as far as the eyes could see. Nia gulped. 

They were _prison cells._


End file.
